1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information collecting system and terminal equipment, in which the terminal equipment connected to a network collects information.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional information collecting system. In FIG. 10, reference numerals 101a–101n each designate a terminal; 102 designates a network to which a plurality of terminals 101a–101n are connected; and 103 designates an information center including a file server 104, a WWW (World Wide Web) server 105, a database server 106 and the like.
The terminals 101a–101n each comprise various application programs operating on an operating system (OS). On the other hand, the terminal 101n is not directly connected to the network 102, but connected via a mobile phone 107 having an information transmitting function to exchange information with the information center 103.
Next, the operation of the conventional system will be described.
When a user activates the terminal 101a, for example, according to a prescribed operating procedure, it exchanges necessary information with the information center 103 via the network 102, carries out required processings using the application programs on the terminal, and displays the processed results.
With such a configuration, the conventional information collecting system requires a prescribed operating procedure to start the terminal. Accordingly, it is difficult for a user unfamiliar with the operation to use the terminal. In addition, since each terminal carries out its processing using its own software, the processing results up to that time will be lost if some power trouble such as a power failure or disconnection takes place. Furthermore, since each terminal installs its own application programs, there arises a problem in that many terminals must change their programs to match their versions to those of the server every time the versions are changed.